I just played with the builder a bit, and noticed the number of trims and options in general are notably low. Seems a bit unusual. 

Adding that linear bit of taillight to the liftgate is a pretty on the nose “we don’t know what else to do here” move.

I actually think this is one of the least offensive looking Lexus/Toyota products. But that bar is so low, you need a shovel to reach it.

I prefer it too, but it’s also a bit more generic and nondescript.

That’s probably ground zero for this whole exercise. The only question left is will Haas or someone else actually be willing to sell in 4 years when they will get more for the sale, or does Andretti stick to starting a new team from scratch.

(Sad Trombone)

This is one of those things that I love tying back to evolution: Claustrophobia is literally a downstream affect of millions of years of people going into enclosed spaces and not coming out.

I generally regard Jim Farely as one of the less-dumb CEO’s but holy shit:

I am weirdly against updating the underside of these. The waterbed-esque suspension and lazy motor that pulls up to like 60 is part of the experience.

1000%. In my mind, Diablo’s were always purple, but I am looking at this thing for the first time and-

I honestly don’t think Lac-Mégantic happening in Penn Station would do it, even if the root causes were even more obviously traceable to the responsible RR actively choosing profit motive over common-sense safety practices.

It’s definitely a problem of the railroad’s own making. It used to typically just be a product of poor rail & equipment maintenance, but Precision Scheduled Railroading has made it so much worse. Trains are assembled longer and with less regard for weight distribution, and as a result, we put on trains on the ground…

No idea how much actual momentum this has behind it, but I can say as a local, the general response I got to the NASCAR race was “why isn’t this F1 instead?“. I personally am enthralled with either series coming here, but F1 doesn’t have the same uphill battle of “the dumb hick racing series” stigma NASCAR has here.…

This makes an alarming amount of sense. Have you seen this reported somewhere, or just a hunch?

I’m hoping the shit really hits the fan when the push for a nation-wide railworkers strike comes back in another year or so. If it happens, there’s a nonzero chance we get forced into another Conrail situation. Except this time it’s all 4.5 of the Class I railroads that need to be nationalized, rather than just the…

I saw Madeon live a couple years ago in Chicago. The whole show was fantastic, but Shelter and Love You Back were an out-of-body experience.

Slight variation on this: Somebody in advertising told me once that we’ll never see anything like the old VW “Lemon” ads again, because now the average person takes themselves way too seriously to appreciate that sort of humility.

And it’s not just the sedans. When I drive my Mustang, I get antagonized by people with stuff like SRT8/Hellcat Durangos as much or more than anything else.

Another weird wrinkle is the lack of inspections you need for tags. I lived in Michigan for 4 years, and one of the wildest things I noticed was how many rusted out and half-wrecked vehicles that would never pass a roadworthiness checkup elsewhere were still rolling around.